The fourth annual meeting of AUSCORE took place at the Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island from 17-19 February. The AUStralian COral REcords group was established in 1997 to facilitate sharing of samples, expertise, instrumentation and information amongst Australian research groups. There are currently 29 members representing 14 organisations and departments.

AUSCORE 2001 was smaller than is usual because a number of members were overseas or had to pull out at the last minute because of sudden, new commitments. The meeting comprised thirteen presentations and 1 poster. Presentations were allowed an hour and speakers could be interrupted for questions and discussion. Everyone found this format enjoyable and very fruitful because the meeting became a more like a workshop. A similar format has been requested for future meetings.

Topics ranged from coral records and global climate change to links between coral records of monsoons and fluctuations in small mammal populations in the Northern Territory. A couple of talks introduced ways in which bleaching events are recorded in coral skeletons. We heard presentations on density variations, stable isotopes and other inclusive records, including rare earth elements. Erica Hendy provided some thought-provoking data for inclusive records associated with the same 5 years of skeleton in corals collected from sites along and across the Great Barrier Reef. While barium, ¹³C and ¹⁸O content could be explained by latitude, strontium and uranium temperature proxies could not, suggesting that they may be influenced by other factors. 

AUSCORE is grateful to Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the Marine Sciences Centre at the University of Queensland for making available a superb venue. Thanks, especially, to Sophie Dove for organising things in Brisbane. Thanks also go to Kevin and Kathy Townsend, the station managers, for making everything easy, and to Gordon for his excellent catering.